The Book that Will Change my Life

Did you ever read a book or article and think: “Wow, this is it! This is the way to go!” I think I just read such a book. Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart. It was a gift from Catherine Hendrix during the time I was organizing an environmental campaign at SAIS and it took me over 4 years to finally read it. I think the timing was right because it really resonated with me, especially in this time of (multiple) crises and after last week's blog post! 

You probably have all heard about the Cradle-to-Cradle concept and reading the book makes you realize how promising the approach actually is. The concept is simple, beautiful, and logical, has a positive outlook and is, above all, pragmatic. I have read many (skeptic as well as inspiring) books about the environment but none of them offered the type of vision and solutions this book does. I need not read any books on global warming and the environment for the time being. I think all those who write these kinds of books should just read this book, start acting, and stop analyzing (of course evaluating the c2c-concept won't hurt :-).

The authors, a chemist and an architect (reason for their pragmatic approach, I guess), apply the cradle-to-cradle (design) concept from the product level up to the factory/building level and beyond.  They base their product designs on the way nature works, following nature's life cycle. The cherry tree and the world of ants are their prime "role models". Both the tree and the ants feed themselves on waste (of others) and the waste they produce is turned again into food for themselves or for others. It means the waste they produce needs to be of the same (true recycling) or even higher (up-cycling) quality. 

To achieve this in real-life production cycles the authors suggest the following steps:

• Don't use any toxins in the production process.
• Create products within either the biological (using only biological nutrients) or the technical (using only technical nutrients) cycle. Don’t mix biological and technical nutrients. If you keep to these separate cycles all waste can be turned into (new) inputs. In other words, there would be no need for many additional inputs for new production.
• Diversity is key: a production cycle depends on and adds to, in other words interacts with, its environment (types of nutrients and human capital available, type of weather etc.). 

The main result: zero waste, as all waste equals food. This is good for people and for the environment and, according to business people, it is good for business too (recognize the three Ps? People, Planet, Profit …) 

In redesigning the production cycle, the authors pay special attention to staff working conditions. If the staff enjoys their working space and sees the value their products add to the business and to the environment they will benefit the company more. If every company would do this, this world would be an amazing place.

The big question is, of course, whether companies can be interested in introducing cradle-to-cradle designs. There seems to be no reason not to. Nike and Ford are big companies that have picked up on it. Nike has developed its first cradle-to-cradle shoe; Ford is working on a cradle-to-cradle car and has turned its Rouge Car Factory around. Where 10 years ago, its staff would not allow their children to play around the factory premises (among others because of the toxic soil), nowadays they would have no problem doing so. Both companies agree that it makes business sense to design their products, buildings etc. cradle-to-cradle. It needs investment but pays back multiple times over.

These are just a few of the examples the authors give although I do have some doubts about some of their (up-cycling) design proposals. They propose for example biodegradable cups that have seeds in them, so when you throw them away, flowers will grow. That means you actually have to litter the fields with cups (mmmm ...) or ensure that you have garbage cans in the streets for just biodegradable stuff ... doable, of course, but less practical according to me.

To the authors it is not a matter of being less bad (reducing waste) when it comes to the environment but about being good or even better. Growth as such is not a problem in the cradle-to-cradle philosophy because we are not exhausting our planet, instead we might even improve on it.

If you are as worried about the environment as I am (or ... maybe slightly less :-), you are tired of the manner in which the issue is discussed, and you are looking for pragmatic approaches to working on it, I can only encourage you to read this book.

My role as consumer is then to look for cradle-to-cradle products, buy them and ask other producers to consider developing cradle-to-cradle products too. And maybe, in my own life, as a producer (for example in writing this blog) I can find ways to be cradle-to-cradle too.

As they say at Nike (I do love their running shoes!) ... Just do it!

Have a great (reading) week,

Rose